The 20 x 10 portable garage (more like tent) that is popular in the winter in northern areas, comes in handy in your situation. Best $400 I ever spent !
Regards,
Taz
The 20 x 10 portable garage (more like tent) that is popular in the winter in northern areas, comes in handy in your situation. Best $400 I ever spent !
Regards,
Taz
Hind-sight & perspective,..
While I'm waiting on parts, I took another look at the bottom end. #5 journal looks very good. Not even a scratch. #6 has been ground down. I figured the crank would be harder than the bearing, but it appears it is the other way around. It appears the bearing has been spinning on the journal for some time. As expected it is pretty beat-up, but it is still whole. The crank jornal has been ground down ~1/16". The metal in the pan looks to be from the crank, more than the bearing.
I originally blamed the failure on coolant in the oil. I'd now suggest the crud coming out of the oil filter was not milky coolant, but rather bearing/crank filing crud. They look similar in color, but not in texture.
A little more than a year ago, the intake gasket burst @ the top-front coolant port. When I pulled it off, I had not drained enough coolant from the system. About a gallon drained from the rear head port into the crankcase. After the gasket was replaced, I replaced the oil. After ~10 miles, I changed the oil again. (Steam from the oil cap showed there was still coolant in the oil.) There was some crud on the mag drain plug. I figured this was the crud from the intake gasket replacement. After 130 miles I replaced the oil & filter. There was plenty of shiney flake coming out of the filter. After 5000 miles another oil change showed metal on the drain plug & plenty of crud coming from the spent filter. I though this may have been a small amount of water in the oil, but now I know it was bearing/crank metal. It lasted another 5 months. Up until the knocking, there wasn't any other sign there was a problem. (Other than there was something going on in the oil.) It had 130K miles on it, but it still ran great, and had good oil pressure. It was one of the tightest engines that I have owned.
I never understood how a bearing could spin in the journal, as it would take a lot to break the locking tab. I'm sure the replacement of the intake gasket caused this. (Another Vortec failure.) I'm not convinced this was caused by coolant in the oil. As in, why would it happen at the first journal in the oil delivery flow? Why would it only happen on one journal? Does the rear-most journal spin bearings more often than other cylinders? I doubt the crud got past the filter as the rest of engine is clean. Is there some other cause of a spun bearing?
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